Career
He was selected from 114 applicants to fill a vacancy on the Council in January 1997, was elected to the position that fall, and was reelected in 2001 and 2005. In his 2001 campaign, he defeated music critic, monorail booster and author Grant Cogswell. In a film about that campaign, Grassroots, McIver was played by Cedric the Entertainer.
McIver chaired the City Council’s Housing & Economic Development Committee.
(From 2004 through 2007 he was the chair of the Council’s Budget & Finance Committee)
McIver was strongly identified with Rainier Valley, one of Seattle"s poorer neighborhoods. During the protests surrounding the Seattle World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999, McIver, on his way to an official dinner, was, according to fellow councilmember Jean Godden, "stopped by a Seattle policeman who did not recognize him as a council member, refused to believe he was a public official, and insisted on making him stand spreadeagled up against his car." "He never forgot that, not so much because of the indignity to him, but that others did not believe an African American might be a city councilmember."
McIver died on March 9, 2013, at the age of 71 in Seattle.
McIver stated that he had "declined to pay a settlement penalty presented by the Ethics and Elections Commission executive director and intend to vigorously challenge these baseless charges." McIver paid the $1,000 fine using tax dollars.